Alvechurch C of E Middle School meet Prince Charles at Twickenham final

May 15 2008 Submitted by David Snell

ALVECHURCH C of E Middle School Year 8 rugby team capped off a remarkable year by making it all the way to the National Emerging Schools final and playing on the hallowed turf of Twickenham.

They had already beaten off 17 schools to be crowned Worcestershire champions, then the best from four local counties to be crowned North Midlands champions before seeing off schools from a Warwickshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire, without conceding a try, to take the West Midlands title.

At Twickenham they were pitted against schools from Kent, Bristol and Merseyside in a qualifying tournament to see who would make it to the final.

Scores from Dave Baker and Josh Poole meant they managed to win two of the games and draw the other to make it through to play Harrogate High School in the final.

The ten minutes on the magnificent Twickenham turf flew by and a late score from their opponents meant that Alvechurch took home the runners up trophy - not bad as over 3,000 schools entered the emerging schools festival!

Captain Dan McNougher was presented with the trophy by Prince Charles in front of a crowd of 55,000 who were watching the annual Army v Navy game.

On the previous Tuesday they beat Nunnery Wood High School at Worcester RFC to lift the Worcester and City Cup, a 15 a side competition open to all State schools in the county.

They completed that victory thanks to tries from Ben Lucas (2), Harry Cadman and Dave Baker with the winner 2 minutes from time.

The week before that they had seen off the local challenge of St.Johns and Catshill to lift the Bromsgrove and District league title at Bromsgrove RFC.

Head of rugby David Snell and coach Gary Sheridan paid tribute the boys commitment to their cause:"It has been an incredible season with the boys winning six trophies in total.

"We have played against some huge opponents over the year but the team has never been phased and their desire to tackle anything that moves has got them this far. They are a real team with no individual stars who dominate the game."

The school was awarded the RFU Development award, one of only six in the North Midlands, at the start of the year for the increase in participation that has taken place.

From no rugby two years ago they now have teams in Years 7 and 8 and for the second season running a very competitive girls side who finished 4th in the North Midlands.